The assumption that couples who get divorced fight endlessly when they divide up the spoils is wrong, according to new Australian research.

In the first large-scale study of its type in more than a decade, the Australian Institute of Family Studies asked 9000 separated Australian parents how they settled the division of their property.

The majority did not have large assets to split - an average of about $261,000 - and were able to resolve the matters quickly, the research found.

Almost half of the couples had divided their property within a year, although about half of the richer families, with assets of more than $500,000, took more than two years to come to resolution.

And the majority managed to resolve property issues without having to resort to lawyers or the courts, said senior research fellow and co-author Dr Rae Kaspiew.

“I think the message to take away from this research is that fighting and acrimony is not an inherent result of separation and in fact the majority of parents were able to sort things out,” she said.

The findings were based on a sample of people who had been married or living together and who had been separated for about five years, many of whom had very young or primary-aged children.

About 60 per cent of them thought the property division was fair, although that left a significant minority who considered it “somewhat” or “very” unfair.

Perceptions of fairness seemed to revolve around the eventual share of the settlement, who left the family home and if they had experienced family violence.

Women reported they got about 50 per cent of property assets, while men said they got about 37 per cent. Both tended to underestimate their own share of the property division.

Overall, both men and women got fewer assets if they left the family home, including women who had left because of family violence.

The most common reason for accepting a settlement was wanting to move on, with about two-thirds of those who believed they had received an unfair settlement saying they wanted to “get things over with”.

The research will be presented at the Australian Institute of Family Studies conference in Melbourne this week.